The natural world. Looking pretty for 3.5b years.

Chinese filmmaking

Chinese filmmakers have a long tradition of using a simple device of telling a huge story by using a single individual or family as the vehicle around which the drama or documentary unfolds. Whether it is Zhang Yimou telling his lyrical drama of a rural school teacher trying to help her students in The Road Home or the stirring documentary Up the Yangtze showcasing the impact of the Three Gorges Dam on a rapidly industrializing China, the country's filmmakers know how to tell gripping tales.

Now, the same approach has been used by a newswoman who left her position with China's national television station to investigate the impact of air and water pollution on children in China. TV anchorwoman Chai Jing produced Under the Dome that has been viewed by more than 200 million Chinese. Her film has not been blocked by Chinese media sensors probably because it tells an environmental story familiar to every person in China. An English translation is now available to view.

Check it out and think how any great, important, and compelling story can be told with the simplest of tools: